1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a miniature theatre apparatus, and more particularly to such a theatre with capability for interacting with members of the audience.
2. Description of Related Art
The following art defines the present state of this field: Stentiford, U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,560 describes a speech synthesizer produces prompts in the voice of a native speaker of a language to be learned to which the student replies or imitates. A phrase recognizer employs keyword recognition to generate from the student's prompted response an original speech template spoken by the student. Thereafter, interactive dialogue takes place. The student's progress in that dialogue is monitored by measuring the deviation of the student's current speech from his original speech template. When this deviation is sufficiently large so that the recognizer no longer recognizes what the student is saying, the system retrains and updates the student's speech template. In another embodiment, the system includes a display which shows the native speaker's mouth shape while the words to be imitated are spoken by the speech synthesizer. Also provided are a video pick-up and analyzer for analyzing the shapes of the student's mouth to give the student visual feedback.
Wang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,319 describes a toy band assembly including a stage assembly, a plurality of movable toy figures, such as toy frog figures, a plurality of toy musical instruments, a sound pick-up unit, a stage lights assembly, power supply, a power supply switch, and integrated circuit, a front transmission mechanism, a front reciprocating mechanism, a rear transmission mechanism, and a rear reciprocating mechanism. When the power supply switch is switched on, light bulbs in a stage lights assembly start to flash and the sound pick-up unit picks up sound signals from the surroundings and directs electric signals to the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit electrically connects the power supply means to a front and a rear motor when sufficient electrical signal is received. The front and rear motors rotate and translate their rotations to the front and rear transmission mechanisms and to the front and rear reciprocating mechanisms. The plurality of toy figures is mechanically connected to the front and rear reciprocating mechanism and correspondingly moves left and right, up and down. The mouths and heads of the plurality of toy figures are capable of movement, thus giving an impression that the toy figures are performing before an audience.
Haberle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,609 describes a puppet theater with a playback device for sounds provided during a theatrical performance has an electrically actuatable display for each puppet to be used. Control signals are recorded on the sound medium of the playback device, and include display controls to trigger the displays to cue the puppeteer during the performance as to which puppet is to be used at a given time in the script. The control signals of the playback device can also include automatic commands for unwinding a backdrop, and signals for controlling the illumination of colored lamps which light the stage.
Taylor, U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,171 describes a portable puppet theater system including: a vertically disposed first front section having a rectangular configuration having an enlarged opening therethrough; a vertically disposed second rear section in a rectangular configuration having a periphery generally corresponding to that of the first section; a pair of side bars pivotable coupling the sides of the front section and rear section, the side bars also being pivotable at the centers thereof, to allow the front and rear sections to be moved toward each other for a collapsed orientation and away from each other for an operative orientation; a pelmet positioned across the upper edge of the opening with side curtains at the sides of the opening movable between a closed position in contact with each other and an open position allowing viewing through the opening; a plurality of lights located adjacent the upper edge of the opening; a tape player located adjacent to the lower edge of the opening; speakers mounted on the front face of the front section beneath the opening; a microphone operatively coupled to the speakers; a control panel on the back face of the front section for controlling the lights and the microphone along with a tape player; and a porous see-through backdrop constituting the central extent of the rear sections.
Yasuta et al, GB 2227183A provides an apparatus including at least one article having movable parts (e.g. eyes, mouth, limbs), a recording medium bearing at least sound information relating to the article, and means for playing back the medium and, as a result, causing movement of the parts and reproduction of the sound information. The medium may be a video tape having two audio tracks, and having video information reproduced on screen. Part of the screen may display information which is detected by a sensor and used to control the program of movement and sound.
Lohr, U.S. Pat. No. 2,100,486 relates to toys, more particularly to dancing figure toys. The primary object of the invention is to generally improve dancing figure toys. Amore particular object resides in the provision of such a toy in which the figure will be cased to move not only vertically to simulate dancing, but also from side to side. In accordance with a further feature and object of the invention, the vibration and movements of the toys are given an irregularity such as to simulate tap dancing. Other objects of the invention concern the general organization and arrangement of the toy, and are to simulate a small stage with an appropriate back drop; to conceal the motor works and operating mechanism behind the drop; and to support and control the movement of the figure toy by means of a support arm which extends in a relatively inconspicuous manner from the toy rearwardly through and opening in the back drop.
Hunt, U.S. Pat. No. 1,628,628 relates to mechanical miniature theatricals. The object of the invention is a combination of a miniature theatrical stage with figures disposed thereabout to represent animate beings, and mechanical devices co-operating with special constructions of the individual figures whereby the miniature figures are caused to perform ordinary actions of animate beings in a lifelike manner, the whole being coordinated to cause a predetermined relation of the actions of one or more figures to those of other figures, with the result of causing the production on a small scale of a theatrical play or the like, involving actions by a number of individuals.
The prior art teaches the use of mechanical objects on a miniature stage where the objects are mechanically animated and respond to music or other audio prompts. However, the prior art does not teach that such a staged program may be interactive with a member(s) of the audience by accepting verbal commands, interpreting the commands through voice recognition techniques and respond accordingly. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.